Spring Township police on Thursday filed felony charges against a Philipsburg woman for allegedly providing the drugs that resulted in a man’s overdose death in April.
Shianna L. Lambert, 24, was charged with a first-degree felony count of drug delivery resulting in death, felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and criminal use of a communication facility and misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
She has been detained without bail at the Centre County Correctional since April 17, when she was charged with tampering with evidence and obstruction for allegedly attempting to delete cell phone evidence related to the case.
According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Spring Township police, officers found a 26-year-old man not breathing when they arrived at about 11:10 p.m. on April 10 at a home on the 100 block of Flint Court. Narcan was administered three times and CPR initiated prior to police arrival, but the man did not regain a pulse and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A coroner’s investigation report completed on May 9 concluded the man died of a drug overdose that included multiple forms of fentanyl as well as xylazine, an animal sedative known by the name “tranq” and which has seen growing use as a street drug.
Two women, including Lambert, were present at the time of the man’s death, and police wrote in the complaint that Lambert was known to sell heroin and fentanyl.
During the investigation, a relative of the man told police that she knew Lambert gave him drugs and that Lambert came to see him on the day of his death. The relative left the house for a few minutes and when she returned the man was “hallucinating and talking about drug cartels,” according to the affidavit.
He told the relative he didn’t want to keep doing drugs and put a “ticket,” slang for a stamp bag of heroin or fentanyl, on the counter, police wrote. Lambert then allegedly told him to “shut up” and to leave with her.
Another relative told police that he acquired drugs from Lambert the same day and that she said she had a half a bundle from Philadelphia on her.
On April 14, investigators returned to the residence where the man died and Lambert was not there. Another woman, who said Lambert had abandoned her belongings, consented to a search of the home, according to the affidavit. Police allegedly found among Lambert’s items a large number of unused blue glassine bags commonly used by street-level dealers for heroin and fentanyl.
That same day, investigators took three phones seized from the residence to Penn State police for forensic analysis. They learned that the phone belonging to Lambert had been remotely deleted, according to the affidavit.
Police were able to recover some messages from her phone about selling fentanyl, including one in which she wrote she did not “want to catch a murder charge” because of the potency of the drugs, according to the affidavit.
Lambert went to the Spring Township police station on April 17 to retrieve her phone, and while there she asked to speak to an investigator about the case, police wrote. After telling a story police called “clearly not the truth,” Lambert allegedly admitted that the man asked her for drugs and that she gave him a bag of fentanyl that she bought in Philadelphia.
She also allegedly admitted to logging into her iCloud to delete the contents of her phone and described her process for purchasing drugs to bring back to Centre County to sell. Lambert told police she had drugs on her at the time she was taken into custody and produced 14 stamp bags of fentanyl she had hidden in her clothing, police wrote.
At the preliminary arraignment on the tampering charges, Lambert allegedly remarked to a family member that “I am going to be charged for his murder,” and “He asked me for drugs and I gave them to him like an idiot.”
A preliminary arraignment on the new charges is scheduled for Friday and a preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 7.
